Honestly, can the Democrats get at least one thing right this session?
Why didn’t Democrats expect the public would take advantage of theCash for Clunkers program and fund it accordingly? It was so simple. So, very, very simple.
Congress came up with the money for the banks and they didn’t seem to run out of money to fund them (banks got $700 billion, Cash for Clunkers was a measly $1 billion) yet one of the programs that could really help the average man or woman and the ailing auto industry, runs out of money after just four days!!!
And they wonder why people hate Congress and politicians?
Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson’s doctor gave him the drug Propofol or Diprivanthat killed him!
CNN is confirming this right now. WOW!!!
I wonder what thetoxicology reportis going to detail? Will it say that Diprivan was the cause of death?
If it does, this doctor well he wouldn’t be smiling like that anymore. However, it’s stared to appear more and more each day that someone is going to jail or will have to pay in some way for Michael Jackson’s death.
I have refrained from commenting on the Crowley-Gates-Obama affair until today.
Why? Because I didn’t know how I really viewed the incident and if I considered race the main motivating factor behind the officer’s actions. And when I’m suffering an intellectual dilemma or an internal conflict I keep my mouth shut and blogging about the incident wouldn’t have allowed me to reach a resolution.
I think I’m now seeing things a bit more clearly.
You see, while I do believe that Gates should never have been arrested and if the situation had been reversed, I would have supported a White or Latino man in this circumstance as well, I don’t know if Professor Gates really was a victim of racial profiling.
On one hand I believe Gates was arrested because he was being mouthy to Sergeant Crowley and while I agree that’s not a justifiable reason to be arrested, the cop exercised his discretion to the fullest by conducting the arrest when he should have walked away. BUT cops arrest mouthy people all the time-in some instances it’s to prove they can. However, these arrests don’t typically occur in the person’s own home! But I don’t know if he wanted to arrest a mouthy, black man or if he just wanted to arrest a man that was giving him lip.
Look, I’ve never been mouthy with a cop and the times I have been caught breaking the law, i.e speeding I have been polite and courteous and most often or not the cop gave me a ticket for another minor traffic offense instead of the speeding ticket. Once, I even dared to tell the truth when asked the dreaded question, “Do you know why I stopped you?” I replied, “Yes. I was speeding and I know I shouldn’t be.” The cop smiled, looked at me, said something which I can’t remember right now, talked with me for a few more minutes, checked my ID and registration and then he let me go with a warning. And this was in a small town, in Upstate New York where you can count the number of black people on one hand! LOL
But I can also tell you that I believe my husband and I have been victims of racial profiling in Arizona. And that we’ve been pulled over more times in that state than in any other state we’ve lived or travelled too in the United States.
So I can see both sides of the issue.
Anyway,President Obama, James Crowley and Louis Gateshave all decided to have a beer together at the White House. What a great photo op! The three peace makers should break into song-Kumbaya would be perfect..LOL. Until the next incident involving race confronts and divides us. But I believe the Crowley-Gates incident had more to do with class than it did about race and that is something we have not even begin to honestly confront in America.
Chris Brown has finally publicly apologized for beating up Rihanna.
In anew apology video Brownis seeking and asking for the public’s forgiveness and states that he has wanted to apologize for months but was advised not too by his attorney.
In a two minute statement Brown says, “I’m not going to sit here and make any excuses..and what I did was inexcusable. I’m very sad and very ashamed of what I’ve done.”
In the end Brown tires to reassure us that he would never beat up another woman and that he wants to work to regain the title of role model. After the Rihanna incident, the title role model may remain elusive but I do hope for his sake and the sake of his future relationships, that he can earn the title of a recovered batterer.
President Obama and the Democrats in the US Congress are in the process of hacking out a health care bill.
Some say we can’t afford to cover all Americans-it would cost too much. Others, we can’t afford NOT too cover all Americans.
With one in six Americans uninsured and with the highest health care costs in the developed world what looked like a sure thing a few months ago, has now become a huge dilemma for President Obama and the Democratic Leadership.
If Democrats don’t pass health care reform, and remember Democrats are the overwhelming majority in the House and the Senate, one of Obama’s major campaign promises will not be achieved and probably wouldn’t even be achieved in his first term. And in the end you can bet that he and fellow Democrats will pay for it come election day in 2010 and 2012. But if they do listen to theopposition,within their own party, the bill may be derailed anyway because most of these Democrats oppose a public option- a‘government health insurance programakin to Medicare which would be open to anyone’and would move with the individual from job to job and even state to state.
So Democrats are left with only one option. Pass a watered down version of a health care bill and tout it as reform and hype the hell out of it so that the public may actually believe that they accomplished something truly significant and monumental this session.
We all knew that comprehensive health care reform wasn’t going to be easy and that there would be significant opposition to the president’s efforts, however as Democrats appear to be lugging a bill through Congress and more and more officials talk about thespiralling costs of the proposed reforms, at a time when the economy is in perail and a lot of people don’t know where the next pay check is going to come from, its unlikely that we’re going to see any significant reforms.
An unscientific observation has led me to believe that during these hard times, mop soda and all that while many people may understand the importance and support health care reform they are unwilling to abandon an imperfect but tried system and put their faith, once again, in an untested and somewhat dubious process, in the end Democrats will have to balance today’s hardships against tomorrow’s benefits and do what’s in the best interest of the American people and not themselves.
No doubt, things are bad out there. Obama is trying his best but to be honest it doesn’t seem to be working.
But I don’t care how bad things are with me, I would have to be so damn desperate (dying of thirst and my legs shot off) and without any hope of reaching a lake or fresh water river before I drank MOP SODA.
I’m sure you’ve seen the smart mop ad. It’s the one where this guy, pitchman Anthony Sullivan, squeezes spilled soda from a mop into a glass as he explains how awesome this ’smart mop’ is and tries to convince you that times are so tough we can’t afford to waste even one glass of spilt soda.
I don’t know where the marketing and advertising people came up with that concept but it sucks because most people I know, even the ones hurting for money, are not going to drink soda squeezed from a mop!
What were the ad people thinking? Using that as a reason to buy the smart mop is not smart-it’s simply disgusting.
Levi Johnstonbecame known for one thing- fathering Sarah Palin’s grandchild with her daughter Bristol Palin.
However, over the past few days, if you didn’t know better you might’ve thought Johnston was a seasoned political commentator. He’s been appearing on morning shows and most recently on CNNvoicing his opinion on Sarah Palin’s resignation.
Of course Johnston has a right to his opinion and in certain cases, the media speaking to knowledgeable family members can give the public valuable insight into a candidate or an individual, but not in this case. This guy doesn’t have any credibility or political knowledge so the media shouldn’t be legitimizing his opinions by broadcasting them around the world. I’m willing to bet they are only a handful of people in this country who would trust Levi Johnston’s opinion on the right brand of jeans let alone his opinions onwho to vote for.
Yet they keep seeking his opinion. I’m sure they don’t actually believe that Johnston’s opinion on Palin could actually contribute to a more informed electorate so the continuing focus on Levi Johnston’s opinion by the mainstream media is just baffling.
The political commentator debuted his show’s new intro and their new HD studio a few minutes ago.
The studio is HUGE! They did a wide shot and panned around the entire studio at the beginning of the show and just by the looks of it you could fit my first studio apartment into that place!
The intro to the show is now a lot more serious however I think I prefer the old one but you never know this one will probably grow on me too.
I’m sure there’s going to be just as much drama in this studio as there was in the last one because wherever Chris Matthews goes drama is sure to follow.
See. it’s only been 20mins into Matthews’ ‘new’ show and he’s already called former Vice President Dick Cheney, “that man” in regards to the reported involvement of the VP in aCIA secret assassination program.
Dr.Benjamin gave up lucrative career opportunities only to watch the practice she helped to build with her own hands be destroyed twice by hurricanes-Hurricane Georges in 1998 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
She has used her own money, gone without pay, accepts what ever her patients can afford, makes house calls all in in an effort to deliver quality, preventative medical care to the residents of this small rural town.
Nothing stops Dr. Benjamin. Not rain. Not fire. Not money. With a dedicated staff firmly by her side, including 78 year old nurse Nell Stoddard, Benjamin continues to receive numerous accolades and awards for her valiant attempts and successes at providing affordable health care at her family practice clinic, helping others establish rural clinics across the nation when interviewed Benjamin has said that her goal in establishing the clinic was, ” To find a way to provide the best possible medical care to patients who often can’t afford health insurance and the only way to do that was to learn how to run a business efficiently.”
Should Benjamin become the next US Surgeon General and she still maintains the goal of finding ‘a way to provide the best possible medical care to patients who can’t afford health insurance’ you better believe she will have just as big an impact on the nations’ health care system as she’s had on La Batre, Alabama.
Did any of you happen to watch the Martin Bashir interview with Michael Jackson this weekend on MSNBC?
I didn’t see the interview when it first aired some years ago and I still didn’t get to watch the entire interview but the parts I watched were excruciating because Michael Jackson clearly needed therapy and over the years it seems he was allowed to get worst and worst.
Of all the signs Jackson displayed, that seem to indicate he needed some type of therapy, the one that leaped out at me was the answer he gave to Bashir about his plastic surgery. Jackson seemed to believe that he could actually convince Bashir and the world that he only had two operations and that he was born with pale skin and a dimpled chin! He even tried to convince Bashir that the changes occurred because of puberty and him ‘changing’. Whoa!
It was also hard to watch Jackson become visibly upset when it looks like his fans had turned against him after the Berlin baby dangling incident. And how abruptly his body language changes when Bashir starts to talk about the treatment he received from his father while growing up and why it’s understandable he would want to change his appearance because of all the teasing he received. And most adults that were tormented as children can definitely sympathize with Jackson here but it’s evident that even after all this time, some thirty to forty years later, Jackson had yet to come to terms with the treatment he received at the hands of his father Joe Jackson.
I don’t know if Jackson had ever been to or sought therapy or mental health treatment because the topic of therapy is still a big taboo in the black community however his behavior went beyond eccentric and his family and friends should have convinced him to seek help.
Many of those around him will now have to come to terms with the fact that Michael Jackson may have been crying out for help all this time and none them were able to or allowed themselves to hear his calls.
I disagree with those who assert that Sotomayor’s journey has been remarkable.
Like most who succeed Sotomayor went to the best schools, worked extremely hard, put in her time on the job and became known to all the right people. The only thing that differentiates Sotomayor from other nominees is her race. And what is truly remarkable, to me, is that it has taken us this long as a society to recognize the contributions and abilities of those, like Sotomayor, that weren’t born white and male and that firsts like Sotomayor’s and Obama’s are still occurring.
However, in a few hours we’ll watch numerous Senators applaud and celebrate Sotomayor’s nomination. They will tell us how impressed they are with her life story and recite what a uniquely American story hers is and that will fill most of our hearts with pride and joy.
However, as we watch the hearings I will also be hoping that the next time a Hispanic man or woman is being considered for the Supreme Court, his or her life story wouldn’t garner as much attention and that hopefully in the future when my generation are controlling the reigns of power we can honestly say to the public that the only aspect of any nominee’s life that will be considered will be their opinions and rulings on the bench and we hopefully would’ve climbed another rung on the ladder of equality.
Swearing doesn’t actually make everything better or make the pain go away but we now have proofthatswearing helps usto be better able to tolerate a painful situation.
Unlike most people, I didn’t start swearing until I was 19. I was a sheltered child..lol. Anyway I had to ‘learn to swear’ and I still haven’t developed the knack that some people have for combining swear words George Carlin comes to mind here. So I tend to rely on the most used ones and I must confess that to this day they are just some some swear words I could never, ever use. But who could deny the fact that sometimes the only appropriate word for a specific situation is $UCK!
And during my various travels I found that Americans are a lot better at swearing than Europeans. We’re born naturals the words kinda roll off our tongues. And the British have a way of swearing that makes you feel dirty all over and not in a good way..LOL.
One more thing, I have to applaud the women and men who took part in this study because what they were asked to endure in order to determine the affect of swearing on an individual’s tolerance to pain sounds like an act Dick Cheney would have sanctioned!
Anyway, all we have to do now is get them to do a study proving that swearing at our PCs causes them to work faster so we’ll be able to swear at work-in front of our bosses!
Today Michael Jackson’s family, friends and admirers paid tribute to the King Of Pop-Michael Jackson at the Staples Center in California.
From the emphatic speech by civil rights crusader, Al Sharpton to the emotional, tear jerking, outburst of his daughter Paris Katherine who confidently stated, “Daddy was the best father you could ever imagine!”
Regardless of what you thought, think about Michael Jackson, if you watched the tribute today you would have to be an alien if you didn’t see that this man was loved and appreciated by many, many people and that his contributions to the United States and the world will never be matched again.
Michael Jackson was harassed, ridiculed and persecuted for a large portion of his life and some of it, if we are honest was deserved, but today for 90 minutes today the world paused to celebrate the life and talent of man who by chance and sheer determination happened to be better at singing, dancing and entertaining than 99 percent of those who live or have ever lived on this planet but the world did stop, if only for a few minutes to reflect on the life of one man- a man who changed the world.
From a very pregnant Jennifer Hudson to a 12 -year old British boy Shaheen Jafargholi song after song, speech after speech was a declaration of the love, respect and admiration Michael Jackson garnered around the globe.
But to me, the most fitting image to Michael Jackson’s legacy came almost at the very of end of the service when people of every race, bi racial kids, black men, white women and the Jackson family all shared the same stage, linked arm in arm and sang one Michael Jackson’s most popular and powerful songs, Heal The World in tribute to a man who tried in his own way to heal the world.
That’s was Al Sharpton’s message to the world and to the critics of Michael Jackson. At Michael Jackson’s public memorial held at the Staples Center in California today. Sharpton received a standing ovation for his fiery defense of Jackson’s legacy.
To the world Sharpton emphatically stated in a veiled reference to the pop stars’ very public trials, “It’s not about mess..it’s about message.”
I for one don’t agree with Sharpton’s assertion but I’ll leave that argument for another day.
And he got a standing ovation when he said pointedly to MJ’s kids, “There was nothing strange about your dad..it was strange what your daddy had to deal with!”
A 21-year old woman in Cambridge, Minnesota allegedlycalled her grandmother 45 times in one day and threatened to kill her. This is in addition to telling the 69 year old woman that “she was being watched” and that ”she’s going to die”.
And why would a grandchild do this to a grandparent? You might think she did this because her grandmother was a Nazi or pedophile or something equally horrid right? WRONG! She did it because she was BORED!
Can you believe this?
With all the activities out there to become involved in, books to read, movies to watch, thrift stores to search through, my girl couldn’t find anything else better to do than to call her grandmother up WITH A FRIEND and scare her to death! SHE DID THIS WITH A FRIEND!!!
Seriously, the next time your nana starts to scold you for not calling her more often, tell her this story I think she’ll go to bed a lot happier with you that night. She may even send you a couple bucks in the mail! LOL
They just love these chases on MSNBC. And I guess we like them too because they wouldn’t cover them if we didn’t watch them right?
Anyway, today’s chase involved the driver of a white Dodge caravan and it occurred in Houston, Texas.
The driver successfully evaded cops for almost an hour and it only came to end when the driver abandoned the mini-van and tried to escape the police by jumping off the roof of a parking garage.
And of course MSNBC had to bring us minute to minute coverage this time it took a team of anchors to tell us what we were seeing on television. Tamron Hall, Contessa Brewer and David Shuster were there to give us their opinions on everything from the stupidity of the driver to the fact that we might see a man jumping to his death on live television. We didn’t see that of course but cable now has a new high-speed chase team.
Oh the drama!
Three anchors, high-speed chases and daytime television-just another day on MSNBC!
For the past few days its been Michael Jackson but for the past thirty years, idiots, celebrities, sports stars, reality stars, porn stars have received, in many cases, baseless adulation, catapulting these mere mortals into the relms of gods and goddesses.
So do you think Rep. Peter King has a point when he says we have to start admiring those who protect, serve and educate society instead of those who merely entertain us?
I can only hope, our fair-minded representative Peter King, would include Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly in the entertainer ranks as well and that he would admonish those within his own party who seek to elevate the opinions of these two..well..you find the word? LOL
And he’s dancing to one of his most controversial yet eerily prophetic songs They Don’t Care About Us. One of the most fitting lines of the song states MJ says, ” I look to heaven to fulfill its prophecy..set me free. “
How fitting that this would be the last song we hear from him.
Debbie Rowe, Michael Jackson’s ex wife and the biological mother of Jacksons’ two eldest children has now declared thatshe wants custody of all threeof his Jackson’s children.
Yup! Tell me you didn’t see this one coming? Rowe has now decided to step up bcause she ‘has too’ even though she once said and seemed quite comfortable with the idea, that she probably would never have seen her kids again had Michael Jackson lived.
Amazing!!
Can you believe her?
Can you believe these people?
His father?
Debbie Rowe?
His doctors?
Everybody wanted a piece of Michael Jackson and from all appearances, granted I don’t know who he really was or what his family life was like, and I would never claim too but it seems that every individual in his life wanted something from him and that nobody really genuinely cared about him or his needs.
Because, frankly his entire life has been a tragedy and that includes the talent, the fame and the money.
I can honestly say that if I had a choice between Michael Jacksons’ life and my life I would choose my life. Because at the very least I know that the people around me really do care about and love me for me.
With the ways things have played out thus far with Michael Jackson it seems he was never entirely sure what peoples’ motives were and that includes his own family.
And that ultimately leads to a very sad, sad life.
He has a new movie out Public Enemies and I’m sure it’ll make him millions of dollars and millions more will see it.
But I have just one question will Johnny Depp ever get old?
I know that Father Time is better to men than women but somehow he looks younger now than he did back in the 80s! Doesn’t he? Good light and makeup can work wonders..I know but…I’m sure he would deny it but I’m actually starting to believe that Johnny here, may actually have made that deal with the devilafter all.
I love politics and I could listen to policy discussions on most topics but listening to President Obama’s health care town hall on CNN bored me to tears today. Even MSNBC refused to air it and they cover ever little thing he does. LOL
Yes, I know we have to fix health care.
Yes, we have to get people covered.
And the personal stories we often hear at these town halls should provide us with even more incentives to fix our health care system.
But couldn’t Obama put some interesting graphics up there? Seriously. Where are the power point presentations on how reducing health care costs could actually help Rush Limbaugh or help most of the members of the Senate live even longer? I don’t know but these health care town halls need something.
But I guess there are some things even President Barack Obama can’t do.
Of course TMZ has copies of the King of Pops’ will up on their site. TMZ is just beating the traditional media up and down.
Oh and one more thing about the will that I’m frankly quite happy to learn, Joe Jackson isn’t mentioned but there is a Michael Jackson Family Trust and who knows who will ultimately have ‘true’ control of that?
As my page states, I am a black liberal. I was born into a family of unapologetic liberals and will undoubtedly remain one for the rest of my life. My blog title borrows from a book I once read called Conversations with an unrepentant liberal by Julius Bixler if you should get the ... Continue reading »
anchors, cheney and matthews, Chris Matthews, cia and dick cheney, cia secret assasinations, congress, dc, dick cheney and the cia, executive authority, hardball with chris matthews, HD studios, influential people, makeovers, matthews questions cheney's authority, msnbc, new show, newsmakers, political commentator, Politics, television drama, tv and politicians, tv shows
Chris Matthews show, Hardball, got a makeover..
In Politics, Social issues, The next four years.., conservatives, crimes, current news analysis, health issues, international issues, law, liberals, messed up stuff, popular people, the press, the republicans, tv shows on July 13, 2009 at 9:30 pmChris Matthews’ show Hardball with Chris Matthews got a makeover.
The political commentator debuted his show’s new intro and their new HD studio a few minutes ago.
The studio is HUGE! They did a wide shot and panned around the entire studio at the beginning of the show and just by the looks of it you could fit my first studio apartment into that place!
The intro to the show is now a lot more serious however I think I prefer the old one but you never know this one will probably grow on me too.
I’m sure there’s going to be just as much drama in this studio as there was in the last one because wherever Chris Matthews goes drama is sure to follow.
See. it’s only been 20mins into Matthews’ ‘new’ show and he’s already called former Vice President Dick Cheney, “that man” in regards to the reported involvement of the VP in a CIA secret assassination program.
Let the drama begin!